Yugoslavia

Yugoslavia is portrayed as a quaint country in which people live mostly on farms and keep to themselves. There are bazaar markets where people meet to trade goods, but Emine's life in Yugoslavia is spent mostly at home with her siblings and her parents. The people are nice and without aspirations or dreams. When President Tito dies and the war breaks out, the country is turned into a battlefield. Civilians are beaten and raped and murdered, and the family must flee. Even when the war ends, none of them can every truly go back home.

Finland

Finland is portrayed as a thriving metropolis that lacks the old-school charm of Yugoslavia. When the family first arrives in Finland they must live in a tenement building full of other refugees. At school, Bekim and his siblings are bullied for being poor immigrants. The Finnish people dislike the immigrants and feel...